Doll Museum-New Delhi-History and Facts

Dolls Museum of Delhi or Shankar’s International Doll Museum.

There are many museums in the world displaying and showcasing the antique items from bigger to smaller in sizes. But as far as dolls museums are concerned, there are very few world renowned museums that can be counted on our finger tips. The Toy Museum of Dublin in Ireland, the Doll Museum of Warwick in England and Doll Museum of Delhi are worth mentioning.

Delhi’s Doll museum is known as “Shankar’s International Doll Museum” and also called “International Dolls Museum” of Delhi. This is an internationally renowned and attracts visitors from India and all over the world. The museum is visited by kids, students, parents, teachers and tourists. Liked by people from all age groups, it has huge collection of Dolls from all over the world.

History of Delhi’s Doll Museum:

Shankar’s International Doll Museum of Delhi has more than 6500 diverse collection from different countries of the world today. Delhi Doll Museum has been awarded with an international first prize namely “Golden Peacock Feather” in 1980 at the Dolls Biennial function held at Cracow, in Poland.

The museum was founded by K. Shankar Pillai, a journalist and a famous political cartoonist. He had opportunities to visit many countries being a journalist. At many a times, he was accompanied with Jawaharlal Nehru during his foreign visits. Pillai had a hobby to collect dolls.

In early 1950s he was gifted Hungarian doll by the then Hungarian Ambassador to India. This was a big encouraging moment in Pilla’s life and it induced him an idea to make bigger collection of dolls. From now onwards, where ever he traveled, in India or abroad, he spared some time to visit the places where he could get some dolls.

Several embassies and diplomatic missions in Delhi were also contacted and they gifted doll to him. The other visiting dignitaries to India also contributed in the mission. He was mostly helped by Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India while collecting dolls. The visiting dignitaries from different countries like Queen Fredericka of Greece, Madame Tito and from countries like Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, and Iran and from many other countries, gifted him the dolls.

Founder of Delhi Doll Museum:

Shankar Pillai (1902-1989) was the founder of Doll Museum of Delhi, thus this museum is known as Shankar’s International Doll Museum. He liked children a lot and often he held exhibitions for students and poor children.

During one of his exhibitions in Delhi, Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi, was present among other visitors. Indira Gandhi inspired and encouraged Pillai to set up a museum for dolls.

With the support of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, finally a museum was setup by Pillai and inaugurated on 30 November, 1965.

Biography-K. Shankar Pillai:

His full name was Kesava Shankar Pillai, popularly known K. Shankar Pillai or simply Shankar. He was born on 31 July, 1902, at a place called Kayamkulam, located in the state of Kerala.

He had deep interest in cartoon making, sketching and journalism since his childhood. After completing his basic education from Kerala, he went to Bombay to pursue his higher education and he finally settled in New Delhi with his family.

Shankar Pillai worked in many renowned journals and newspapers published in India during those days. He was a successful political cartoonist and reached to the high level of cartooning and journalism. He is known as the “father of political cartooning” in India. He also started a journal named “Shankar’s Weekly” and was the editor of same.

Shankar Pillai had great passion for children’s education. He setup Children’s Book Trust in Delhi, in 1957. The Children’s Book Trust is the first of its kind in the field of children’s literature in India.

Shankar Pillai was honored with India’s second highest civilian award the “Padma Vibhushan” in 1976. This award was conferred to him by the Government of India in recognition of Pillai’s extraordinary contributions to children’s education, cartooning and doll museum. Shankar Pillai died on 26 December 1989.

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Who inaugurated?

The Shankar’s International Doll Museum was inaugurated by the then President of India, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, on 30 November, 1965. Unfortunately, Jawaharlal Nehru, the great patron of museum, had died before the completion of the Doll Museum. At the time of inauguration, the museum had about 500 dolls in number.

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Main attraction of Doll Museum:

There are many attractive dolls and items in the museum from India and abroad. The Kathakali dance form with costumes from South India and some beautiful tribal art dolls from central and eastern part of India are worth viewing.

You may find Boys and Girls Festival dolls from Japan that is very interesting. Apart from this the replica of some Mahatma Gandhi’s freedom movements and replica Dolls of the Queen’s collection of United Kingdom, Mayploe Dance from Hungary, dolls in beautiful frock and Indian women’s dolls in traditional saris, are quite interesting.

Other interesting dolls are Samurai and Kabuki dolls from Japan, dancers’ dolls from Spain, dolls of Orchestra of Women from Thailand, Kandy Pehara from Sri Lanka, which will make you amazed.

Starting from merely 500 dolls, including the doll collections and gifts from Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Rajiv Gandhi, and others, this museum has become world famous, with more than 6500 dolls today.

Museum and doll Collection from countries:

Shankar’s International Doll Museum has a collection of dolls from more than 80 countries. This is one of the world’s famous museums of dolls.

The Museum has been divided into two equal halves from inside and it is situated on the first floor of CBT building. Both the sections have glass cases and wooden racks mounted on the walls to place the dolls and items of exhibition.

One section displays the dolls from Europe, Americas, U.S.A, Australia, New Zealand, and England and from other countries of Latin America and Africa. Other section, displays the dolls and items from Asian countries, Far East, Gulf, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Middle East and India.

Apart from Doll Museum of Delhi, there are some minor doll museum in India as well. One of those museums is in the city of Rajkot, in the state of Gujarat, known as Rotary Dolls Museum. The Rotary Doll Museum, with a collection of around 1400 dolls from all over the world, is quite famous among locals.

A museum like Shankar’s International Doll Museum can be an addition to your tour list, in Delhi. The Delhi’s Doll Museum is located in the same building of Children’s Book Trust (CBT) on first floor, at Nehru House, New Delhi. The museum has a big housed area to accommodate large number of people.

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Address:

Shankar’s International Doll Museum, Children’s Book Trust Building, Nehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, Near Ram Charan Agrwal Chowk, New Delhi-110002.

Timing of Doll Museum:

Opening Time: Opens in the morning at 10:00 AM

Closing Time: Closes at 06:00 PM (there is no lunch break)

The ticket counter closes at 05:30 PM.

Note: The Museum is closed on Monday and other gazetted Indian holidays.

How to reach Doll museum:

Due to its prime location in Delhi city, the museum is highly connected through private/public road transport. You can hire an auto/cab/taxi or use public transport like bus or metro rail.

Nearest Metro Station:

• There are four Metro Stations, all located on a distance of 1 kilometer to the museum.
• (1) ITO Metro Station, Violet Line (2) Pragati Maidan Metro Station, Blue Line (3) Mandi House Metro Station, Blue Line and (4) Delhi Gate Metro Station Violet Line.